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Question about being a NCT marker

I've been taken on as a reserve marker this year - presuming tests go ahead!
I've just re-read the bumpf and it seems that I'll be paid &pound;4.10 per script. Does anyone know if by script it means the child's reading paper and their two writing papers? Or does each one count as a script.
The guidance they've sent seems to say it's the former...in which case it's &pound;4.10 for about 2 hours work....in which case it doesn't seem like it's worth bothering!!!
Does anyone know if this is right? Thanks

It is indeed &pound;4.10 per pupil, So, &pound;4.10 to mark Reading & Writing papers.
To be honest, it should never take 2 hours to complete one child's marking (how would y6 teachers ever survive the year of practices at that rate?), but more importantly, once you've marked the first few batches, you'll get much quicker.
I reckon the year I did it I got to the point of being able to mark both writing papers in less than 10 minutes, and the reading papers in a few minutes each.

Thanks, Tafkam.
I taught Y6 last year and got it done quite quickly, but I just had visions of anguishing over every possible mark for the official papers. I was probably a bit more slap dash with the practice papers than I'd dare to be with the official ones!

Ten mins for two? The marking on my Year 6 papers last year didn't look like half that time was spent on them. Ten minutes - that's all a year's worth of hard work is worth?. I'm not against SATS but I AM against shoddy marking, which is what the papers submitted by my school received last year. I am not saying you marked shoddily in the ten minutes you spent on papers. Just makes me sad when hard work is squashed into ten minutes.

Yes, having marked papers for several years, I can confirm that, once you get into the swing of the marking, 10 mins is the norm. You get to know the marking criteria inside out, so can make judgements very quickly. To be perfectly honest, in all but a few cases, you can more or less state the levels as soon as you see the handwriting.....

Surely that's four years?
Yes, ten minutes is about all it's worth.
You can become very adept at identifying the hoop-jumps as required.
Let's not start pretending that the NCT methodology has any merit!

Yes, having marked papers for several years, I can confirm that, once you get into the swing of the marking, 10 mins is the norm. You get to know the marking criteria inside out, so can make judgements very quickly. To be perfectly honest, in all but a few cases, you can more or less state the levels as soon as you see the handwriting.....

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Having been a marker/TL & Y6 teacher for years, I can't more or less state the levels as soon as I see the handwriting. What's more, even at the end of the marking cycle with extra papers, it takes me more than 10 minutes to mark most scripts. I think it's important to take the time to give children credit for what they have shown they can do.

To be perfectly honest, in all but a few cases, you can more or less state the levels as soon as you see the handwriting.....

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That really, really worries me. Of course I'm delighted if your pre-conception of my poor writers with beautiful handwriting is that they will be a level 4 (5?!) but I have a few excellent writers whose handwriting is below standard. Are you seriously telling me that you start marking these scripts with a pre-conceived notion that they are going to be below level 4?This seems incredibly unfair and misguided.

lardylegs: To
be perfectly honest, in all but a few cases, you can more or less state
the levels as soon as you see the handwriting.....
_
I, too, find this handwriting comment most alarming.
However, I am not concerned about the ten minutes remark - seems a reasonable amount of time to apply a mark scheme with which you are familiar...
BUT,,, to know by handwriting

English markers are paid very badly. I have marked for the 3years and although you do get much quicker as you become more familiar with the mark scheme, it still takes a long time to do a proper job. you get paid below minimum wage that's for sure.

I mark all the handwriting in a school's scripts before marking any of the content, which is how we are trained to mark. When I mark the actual content I can then ignore the quality of the handwriting.
I wonder if that's why it takes me so long to mark??????

As an NCT team leader/marker it frustrates me that some markers do not seem to spend the time at the beginning of the process really getting to grips with the mark scheme. That is the absolute key! Yes, the papers do take time to mark at the beginning of the process but the more familiar you are with the mark scheme, the quicker the process becomes! However, guess work by handwriting should NEVER be happening and I am appalled a marker would even suggest such a thing!!

I mark all the handwriting in a school's scripts before marking any of the content, which is how we are trained to mark. When I mark the actual content I can then ignore the quality of the handwriting.
I wonder if that's why it takes me so long to mark??????

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I do exactly the same - for me, as well as the training aspect, it's psychological - I've got one mark down on that school batch of papers, therefore I'm not STARTING a new batch of papers, I'm simply FINISHING them off!
Probably helps the first year I marked our team leader warned us about not falling into traps laid by boys with scruffy handwriting (or beautifully presented tosh).

This is a fairly considered message to all markers out there. Enjoy your 'pound of flesh' for it may be your last. The death knell of SATS is slowly and finally being sounded.I am ashamed that our so called 'profession' has so many money grabbers (or perhaps you are all still tyring to pay off your student loans.)
Naturally you need the money to compensate for your professionalism and diligence.What will you all do next year? Second job suggestions are welcome.
Stil there's always the extra income from remarks to look forwards too for this year only.

How blooming unecesarily offensive are you?!
I really really decided to mark tests because I sat down and thought "I know, I'll ruin some children's lives this summer instead of getting a proper job." If I didn't mark them - they'd still run the tests, because other people would. I mark for my professional development (helps keep me in touch with things because as a supply I'm very isolated from changes unless I actively seek out the information to keep myself up to date) and yes, the money essentially pays for me to keep a roof over my head during the summer holidays when there's no supply work.
I find your accusations that markers are unprofessional as teachers, purely by virtue of the fact they mark tests to be highly offensive, and a grossly unprofessional comment to make in your role as a teacher to be honest.
I never ever throw this out, this will be the first time I've ever resorted to this as a come back on these boards - but if you're as nasty and twisted (and obviously stressed and worrying about your competence if you're resorting to personal insults at the entire test system) as your post makes out, I feel very sorry for the children you teach.
My conscience is clean - I do my best to squeeze out every single mark I can for a child when I mark a test, and I get blooming peed off when I see people who might not take as much care. If they're going to be done - I'd like to see them get done properly. I sleep well at nights.

And you know, as I do dizzi, what forest doesn't know, which is that no one gets a contract to mark SATS. (Our contracts come from NCT deployment and, as the title of the topic shows, it's NCT marking that we do.) forest clearly pays too much attention to false rumours.

And you know, as I do dizzi, what forest doesn't know, which is that no one gets a contract to mark SATS. (Our contracts come from NCT deployment and, as the title of the topic shows, it's NCT marking that we do.) forest clearly pays too much attention to false rumours.

As an NCT team leader/marker it frustrates me that some markers do not seem to spend the time at the beginning of the process really getting to grips with the mark scheme. That is the absolute key! Yes, the papers do take time to mark at the beginning of the process but the more familiar you are with the mark scheme, the quicker the process becomes!

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y6t, I'm sorry if my dilligence offends you, but please don't accuse me of not taking the time 'getting to grips with the mark scheme'.

Dear LyndaP
My comment was not aimed or in response to your post, which you will see if you look at the timings of both my post and your own!! I was merely stating that marking is a time consuming process which is considerably lengthier at the beginning of the marking cycle until there is total familiarity with the mark scheme and that handwriting is definitely not always an indicator of a child's writing ability!!
Hope that clears that up!!